Five Reasons Jake Martin Has It Out for Luke Baker
by bumblefox
Summary: Jake just met Luke. …So why does he want to punch the guy? Five vignettes, of two hundred words each, exploring why Jake Martin's fist is trying to connect with Luke Baker's face.
1. Friends Don't Let Friends Get Insulted

**Friends Don't Let Friends Get Insulted by Jerks**

* * *

"What did he say to you?" Jake asked.

Jenna sniffed again, directing her gaze upwards in an effort to avoid tearing up. "It was stupid," she tried to assure him.

She'd been eating lunch with Jake when Luke Baker had come up to their table and asked to have a word with her. Privately. That had made her happy.

But then Alli sought out Jake before last period, informing him that Jenna had been absent from all her afternoon classes.

His search ended in the music room, where he found his typically perky friend bleary-eyed and despondent.

"Was it about you wanting to be baptized?"

A few tears escaped as Jenna nodded. Jake rubbed her back comfortingly.

"I thought he was going to say he approves," she admitted. "But instead he told me he'd rather I didn't. That I should go to a different church, because he doesn't want the other church members to _associate_ him and Becky with a girl with a past like mine."

Jake pulled Jenna into a bear hug.

"If Luke thinks he can speak to you like that, he's got a lesson coming," he assured her, anger blossoming in his heart. "I'll see to that."


	2. Crack: Hunger Can Go to Your Head

**Crack: Hunger Can Go to Your Head**

* * *

"_Give me your lunch money!" _Jake Martin roared.

Luke Baker cowered against his locker, shaking. If asked yesterday, he would've said he had a good thirty pounds on this skinny lumberjack. Today? …what the hell was happening?

Luke clawed at his pockets, willing himself to remember where he had his wallet. Just as Jake's face was turning an alarming shade of scarlet, a girl's voice sounded from behind his aggressor's back.

"Jake, you don't need to do this!" Katie Matlin.

The plaid-clad boy roared unintelligibly in response. His fist remained cocked high.

"No, _really_, look! Clare saw you forgot your lunch at home so she brought it for you!"

As Jake turned, Luke was able to glimpse the two girls. The curly-haired girl held a brown paper bag aloft.

Clare delivered the bag to Jake, who seemed to deflate instantly. Katie smoothed his hair before whisking him away, her arm wrapped around him.

Clare began to follow Katie and Jake, before having second thoughts and half-turning back to face the junior boy now slumped against his locker, limp with relief.

She smiled, sweet and embarrassed. "I'm sorry," she giggled. "Jake gets so cranky when he's hungry."

With that, she left.

* * *

**Author's note:**

Because we all know Jake's got a formidable appetite, and sometimes relatively innocent Degrassi students can be in the wrong place at the wrong time.


	3. Rejection and Redemption

**Rejection and Redemption**

* * *

"You tried out for the hockey team?" Katie asked, surprised. She leaned against a closed locker while Jake searched his for a book.

Jake shrugged. "I used to play as a kid. I wanted to find an extracurricular activity for this semester, but…"

"No luck?" Katie asked sympathetically. Jake shook his head.

Almost as if on cue, three boys in hockey jackets turned the hallway corner near them. At the center was Luke.

Jake and Katie made to ignore them, but Luke stopped in front of the couple. A smug smile played on his face.

"You're better off swinging hammers than hockey sticks, Martin," he sneered.

"Clever," Jake responded coolly. "Did you work on that all day?"

"Nah, it came to me when I _whooped _your ass at one-on-one yesterday," Luke boasted.

"Off the ice, I could best you any day," Jake asserted, though he wasn't entirely sure of this. He was taller, but Luke definitely had more muscle.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Prove it."

"_Gladly._"

"Jake," Katie argued. "Don't get involved in some testosterone fest."

"I'm not. This jerk just needs to be taught some humility," he replied. Jake closed his locker and glared at Luke. "Let's take this outside."


	4. Crack: All Fun and Games Until

**Crack: It's All Fun and Games until Someone Mentions Twilight**

* * *

Unable to stop the fight, Katie had run to fetch reinforcements: Clare, Mo, and Marisol. Luke and Jake were still brawling when she returned to the parking lot, friends in tow. A crowd had formed to watch.

The boys disengaged, circled briefly, and each uttered a war cry as they collided again.

"TEAM EDWARD!"

Smack.

"TEAM JACOB!"

Crunch.

"Guys, stop! This isn't worth getting in trouble for!" This discouragement came from Campbell Saunders.

Maya, next to him, shot him a look that could kill. "_Not worth it? _Campbell, you're not the man I thought you were!"

Maya stormed off. Campbell followed her, trailing apologies.

It became apparent that words were useless, so soon Mo launched himself into the fray and separated the fighters easily.

When Jake's friends got to him, he had a bloody nose and a split lip.

Katie glanced at her watch guiltily.

Clare understood. "You've got detention, right? Don't worry, I'll get Jake cleaned up."

She gave Jake tissues to staunch his nosebleed and led him to his truck, opening the passenger side. Jake loaded, Clare sat in the driver's seat and sighed heavily.

"I've never been so disappointed in you," she stated witheringly. "Seriously: Team _Jacob_?"

* * *

**Author's note:**

I must admit I'm not a Twilight fan, so I'm with Cam on this one.

Jake sides with Team Jacob because of the similarity of their names. Maybe some other reasons, too.

...I never claimed to be clever.


	5. No One Messes with My Stepsister

**No One Messes with My (Step)sister**

* * *

Jake didn't move when the doorbell first rang, figuring that Clare – who was reading at the dining room table downstairs – would get to it first.

He did move, and quickly, when a loud slam – accompanied by the rustle of window blinds on glass – came from below.

Descending the staircase, he heard Luke Baker before he saw him.

"It would _really_ be in everyone's best interest if you published an apology." Luke's tone was threatening. "What you call a redaction, yeah?"

It'd been Luke at the door. Whatever exchange Jake had missed hadn't been friendly. Luke was using one arm to keep the door pressed against the wall it opened toward. Where doorknob met wall, there was a good-sized hole in the plaster, probably from the slamming he'd just heard.

Clare stood a pace from Luke, defiantly but unsuccessfully trying to pull the door closed with both hands. She looked livid, her cheeks pink.

"It would be in everyone's best interest if you left," Jake remarked, catching Luke's attention.

A frown flashed across the jock's face when he looked at Jake. But then, cool and taunting, he asked, "I'm sorry, did I interrupt something?"

He drove the implication further by looking from one stepsibling to the other and raising his eyebrows.

"Yes," Jake replied curtly. "Our peace."

Three long strides put Jake alongside Clare, and he used the momentum to unceremoniously shove Luke out past the doorframe. Clare gave her fellow junior a parting glare before closing the door with force.

* * *

**Author's note:**

So I cheated, making this vignette fifty words over the limit I gave myself. No regrets! (I suppose an ironic "YOLO" would be appropriate here.)

These five snippets came from some serious curiosity I have about what makes laid-back Jake take a swing at Luke in (presumably) the first episode they meet. Even the extended drama that Eli involved Jake in, back in Season 11, didn't result in any physical confrontations.

The only reason I'll think is plausible is if Luke harms or seriously threatens a friend of Jake's. But I guess we'll see what happens in a couple short hours! In the mean time, feel free to drop some constructive criticism about my writing.


End file.
